FIREFIGHTER EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY –
Yosemite (CA) National Park:
Yosemite National Park is recruiting seasonal firefighters for the 2009 fire season.
The park covers 1,182 square miles ranging from 1900 feet to 13,000 feet elevation. The
park is open year round with the majority of activities occurring from March to October.
Yosemite receives more than 3 million visitors each year.
Yosemite National Park is located in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It is 208 miles from San
Francisco, 81 miles from Merced and 94 miles from Fresno. Yosemite’s fire management
program is diverse and complex. Fire management tools include suppression, wildland fire
use, prescribed fire and mechanical thinning.
The parks fire crews operate out of 3 structure / wildland stations, 1 interagency wildland
station, and one helibase. During the peak season the park employs approximately 80
firefighters and fire support staff.
The crews work a 40 hour week and overtime is frequently available. Crews are available for
off park fire assignments and may be away from home for extended periods of time.
Seasonal firefighters typically start work in May and usually end their season in October, but
may work longer in dry years. Shopping, dental, medical, and postal services are available in
the park. Government housing may be available.
Enrollment or completion of a basic 32-40 hour wildland firefighting course meeting NWCG
standards is recommended.
Completion of a Firefighter 1 recruit academy, Emergency Medical Technician, hazmat
operations or other fire / rescue related classes are desirable but not required.
Instructions to apply for these positions can be found at USAJOBS using the announcement
number DOI-FIRE-2009-006http://www.usajobs.gov/
This announcement is also being used to fill positions at other National Parks as well as
positions with the Bureau of Land Management.
Chabot College Fire & EMS News
December 9, 2008 www.chabotfire.com 9
First consideration for Yosemite National Park positions will go to applications submitted
before January 20, 2009.
Further information may be found at Yosemite’s website www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm or by
calling the fire stations.
• El Portal Fire Station 209-379-1903
• Valley Fire Station 209-372-0416
• Wawona Fire Station 209-375-9515
The Hodgedon interagency station and Crane Flat helibase are seasonal and usually closed
between October and April.
Yosemite National Park offers a unique opportunity to work in one of California’s most scenic
locations.
The park is an independent jurisdiction providing all emergency services within the park
boundaries. Search and Rescue and EMS are primarily provided by the parks law
enforcement rangers. Wildland and structural fire response is provided by the parks fire
crews. A 24 hour ALS ambulance is staffed at the clinic in Yosemite Valley; ambulances in
the other districts are cross staffed by fire crews or rangers as needed. The park employs a
mix of basic, intermediate and advanced life support providers.
Park resources include:
• 6 Type 1 engines located in El Portal, Wawona, and Yosemite Valley
• 4 Type 3 wildland engines located in El Portal, Hodgedon Meadow, Wawona and
Yosemite Valley
• 4 Type 4 wildland engines located in El Portal, Wawona and Yosemite Valley
• 1 Type 2 water tender located in El Portal
• 1 Type 2 Helicopter (7 person flight crew) located at Crane Flat
• 1 Type 2 crew (18-20 people) located in El Portal
• 1 Fire Use crew (7 people) located in Wawona
• 1 Fire Effects crew (5 people) located in Wawona
• 6 Ambulances located in El Portal, Hodgedon, Tuolumne, Wawona and Yosemite
Valley
• 1 Rescue truck located in El Portal
• 1 Hazmat truck located in Yosemite Valley
• 1 Command bus located in Yosemite Valley
• 3 Search & Rescue trucks located in Yosemite Valley
The park helicopter is rappel and short haul capable. In addition to flying in support of fire
operations it is frequently utilized for search & rescue, medivac and law enforcement
missions.
Yosemite Search & Rescue (YOSAR) is organized through the main SAR cache in Yosemite
Valley. Each of the outlying districts has a SAR coordinator. Personnel for major SAR
operations is drawn from the core group of SAR members, park rangers, fire crews, SAR
volunteers and search dog teams.
Chabot College Fire & EMS News
December 9, 2008 www.chabotfire.com 10
As a fire crew member, employees will work a 40 hour week, generally five 8 hour days on
the engine crews or four 10 hour days on the hand crews. The engine crews and helicopter
are staffed to provide 7 day coverage. During the peak fire season it is not unusual for the
crews to work extended hours and / or an overtime day. This occasionally results in
employees working 6 days, and 50-60 hours in a week. During a seasonal firefighters 5-7
month period of employment it is not unusual for an employee to work 200-600 hours of over
time.
When fire crews respond to an off park assignment they can work 14 days or more without a
day off. During these assignments they may work up to 16 hours a day. When travel time to
and from an incident is included crews may be away from home for a total of 16-20 days.
When crews respond to an incident off park, they are occasionally provided with motel rooms
but most of the time they will sleep on the ground in a fire camp. Tents, sleeping bags and
food are provided when the crews are away at an incident. Crews assigned to remote fires
may live under very primitive conditions.
During a typical work day the crews will begin with cleaning and inspection of the station and
equipment, followed by 1 hour of physical training. Through the rest of the day the crew may
complete training evolutions, equipment maintenance or project work. The fire crews will
conduct many pre-suppression projects including hazard fuels reduction, hydrant testing, and
maintenance of the 30-100 foot vegetation clearances around park buildings. All of the parks
fire stations are older buildings, so various repair and remodeling projects are common.
The engine crews at the El Portal, Wawona and Yosemite Valley stations also provide
structure fire response in the park. Properly trained and certified seasonal firefighters may be
outfitted with structural PPE and utilized on the structure engines at their supervisor’s
discretion.
Yosemite fire frequently provides additional training to their seasonal work force. The type
and quantity of training varies each year based on the overall experience of the parks crews
and how busy the fire season is. In the past this training has included one or more of the
following classes, S211 Portable pumps & water use, S212 Wildfire power saws, S215 Fire
operations in the wildland / urban interface, S271 Helicopter crew member, S290
Intermediate wildland fire behavior and S131 Advanced firefighter. Additionally search and
rescue often provides swift water and rope rescue training to the fire crews so they can better
assist with search and rescue operations.

Forest Service

Forest Service job announcments for temporary seasonal jobs should be open or open shortly for the 2009 fire season. The hiring flurry will start in Early to mid feb and continue until probably April. Then there will be a smattering of hiring through the fire season as employees leave. Your best bet is to get your app in before the 5th or 6th of feb and start contacting areas you would like to work at. I personally am more inclined to hire someone that calls and asks questions and then stops by and visits. Shows me you are interested. Plus the people hiring at the station can tell you when they plan on starting hiring and looking at applications. It is differant for every Handcrew, helicopter, and engine nation wide. If you have any questions please feel free to PM me. I can give you some tips on getting through the Application process. It is kind of wierd. California is one of the best bets of getting hired on with the Fed for the fire season and you should get some good wildland exp.